kajukenbo day 1

The plan was to get there a little early to do the paperwork; the 48 was going to arrive at 7:13, but really it turned out to be 7:27. Thus I felt a little rushed going in, and missed the run-through of how to tie the belt in a knot, but that was fine, because there were five more run-throughs.

The class is for beginners to kajukenbo. I don't know how many have some experience with other martial arts, which is good in that it means I wasn't floundering with the sense that everyone else knew what they were doing. Some people are clearly a whole heck of a lot more flexible than I am. These people can sit down, do a (decidedly obtuse-angled) split, and put their elbow on the floor. Anyway, maybe a dozen students total, seemed reasonably multi-everything, friendly all around.

So we tied our belts. In a circle, did stretches, plus some background from the teacher. Learned salute, stance and action.

Horse stance, with crossing-over to step sideways. Um other stance, forward with rear foot flat, "forward stance"?, with cool-looking traversal of rear foot forward. Cool-looking when an expert does it, that is.

Upward snap kicks into a partner's poofy shield, from tiger stance (interjected at this point). Roundhouse kicks: raising the plane of the kick from the floor is going to be hard. Forward and back-of-knuckle punches from horse stance.

Legs-in-the air situps, ordinary situps (must figure out how to do these on a wood floor without grinding my spine), lift-legs-instead alt-situps. Pushups.

Breathing and motion exercises.

Walked to drakemonger's house, since he very kindly offered a ride home. Petted slut-cats. Was exposed to the "Happy Cake" episode of "Sealab 2021". I enjoyed the subtitles.

I liked the vibe of the class, and am happy that it was for honest-to-goodness beginners such as me. Seemed good people there, though I've promptly forgotten their names.

position paper

I find I agree with this article on a lot.

It is becoming increasingly and distressingly clear that, however justified the coming war with Iraq may be, the Bush administration is in no shape—diplomatically, politically, or intellectually—to wage it or at least to settle its aftermath. It is hard to remember when, if ever, the United States has so badly handled a foreign-policy crisis or been so distrusted by so many friends and foes as a result.

And I do hope that this is not an accurate report.

When [Bush] met with Makiya and two other Iraqis in January, I was told by someone not present, the exiles spent a good portion of the time explaining to the president that there are two kinds of Arabs in Iraq, Sunnis and Shiites.